(This is the 44th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)
Duke Nukem is not a franchise I'm familiar with, apart from the endless negative things I heard about Duke Nukem Forever over the last decade. I was surprised to learn that the game has its roots right here, all the way back in July 1991 on the MS-DOS. The series would go on to have three more releases over the following 20 years, including two 3D games, whereas this one is a 2D platformer/action shooter.
I've played this game for 2 hours in total and did not beat it. My main issue, which I will, among other things, touched on below, was the headache-inducing (literally unfortunately) sounds. But here are my overall thoughts.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 5/10
This game has a lengthy explanation on what's going on before you start, plus dialogue that happens between Duke and the game's antagonist, Dr. Proton, which I always appreciate for this time period. Dr. Proton is a scientist who has turned evil and wants to take over Earth (a popular backstory for video game antagonists at the time I must say). You are Duke Nukem (called Duke Nukum in game because an animated series apparently had a character with the same name, so the devs wanted to avoid a lawsuit), and have to stop Dr. Proton. The intro says the following: "Armed only with his pistol and his can-do attitude, duke is hte one person who might stand a chance of success." Really? A squad of hundreds equipped with that same pistol (or more?) couldn't stand a better chance? Duke then drops a brutal one-liner: "I'll be done with you and still have time to watch Oprah." I appreciate the silliness and am shocked at how long Oprah has managed to stay relevant, despite being one of the fakest and obnoxious people I have ever seen on television. It makes me wonder whether I should like Duke now. I digress.
GAMEPLAY | 9/20
There is nothing wrong with the gameplay in Duke Nukem other than the fact that it is very repetitive and limited in the amount of things you are able to do.
You control your character with the left and right arrow keys, you use the UP arrow key as the "action" key, like taking elevators upwards or teleporting, you use CTRL to jump and ALT to shoot your pistol.
Your goal is to reach the EXIT of an area, which can be pretty much anywhere in a given level. The game uses the space it has fully both vertically and horizontally. This means you can fall down the entire map in some levels, you have lots of space to cover from left to right and a lot of the levels are designed in a kind of labyrinth sort of fashion, as you have no pointers on where to go and some areas can be kind of similar looking. Your goal usually is to find a key to unlock access to other areas and/or the exit itself.
While you are on the lookout for the key, you have to fight off robot enemies and helicopters, you have to break crates which can either have healing items, miscellaneous items that give you points for your total score and dynamite, which explodes, so you have to watch out. There are also cameras that "watch your every move", and if you destroy every camera in a given map, you get bonus points. There is some light platforming here as well to top it off.
The game this reminds me of the most in terms of design is actually Bugs Bunny's Birthday Blowout. In that game, you also work your way through relatively large open areas with exits that can seemingly be everywhere, and on your way there, you fight enemies and collect stuff.
Unlike that game, Duke Nukem doesn't suffer from 3 FPS and basically 0 difficulty level, but I can't say I liked the level design of either game.
Duke Nukem doesn't really have the variety to keep you engaged for the 10+ hours it will take you to beat it on your first playthrough and for me, playing it at all was literally headache-inducing, which is a first for any video game I have ever played, mainly because there is no soundtrack here at all and all you here is those typical MS-DOS sound effects, which I never realized sounded so horrible until I played a game without any music.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 1/10
There is no voice acting, which is pretty typical and no big deal. But there also is no soundtrack, which is very odd. Literally no music at all. And then there is the sound design, which, if this didn't exist either, I would be inclined to at least give one point, but the sounds are so horrible and headache-inducing that I'd give this minus points, if it were to be in my rating system.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 4/10
The game looks like your cut and dry MS-DOS game. The sprite for Duke is a man who just constantly is grinding his teeth, the game lacks detail in environment and animation, there is some use of too strong colors in the background which isn't too kind on the eye and the background itself is either a still image or just pitch black. There are definitely stronger games than this that released for the MS-DOS at the time, so this wasn't that impressive.
ATMOSPHERE | 5/10
Pretty nice to see each episode move to a different setting (earth, moon, future), but visually, this game is rather basic looking and apart from the handful of dialogue that you see throughout the game, and the 0 music and ambient sound, there isn't really anything to give the impression of anything atmospheric, apart from the lack of which on the moon I guess.
CONTENT | 4/10
Game is pretty long but has pretty repetitive gameplay and mission design. Rewards for doing some extra stuff, like destroying all cameras, pretty much always is just some bonus points, so there is a lack of incentive to go through each corner of the map as well (if you can find your way there).
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 4/10
A long game with labyrinth/maze like levels for no real reason. The gameplay variety here does not really justify the maps being so convoluted. The game has its fair share of fans still, just like any game from the past pretty much, but I doubt any new players will find a lot of enjoyment out of finding their way to the target, especially since the maps don't seem to be designed all too well.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 3/10
This is a platformer that doesn't really do anything differently. Perhaps it was an above average platformer on the PC, but there several other platformers who have done just about everything better than Duke Nukem does here.
REPLAYABILITY | 1/5
No real replayability after you're done, unless you want to get those bonus points and increase your score.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
The game worked well at all times.
OVERALL | 39/100
This game is celebrated for being one of the best platformers for the MS-DOS at the time. Flux magazine ranked it the 39th best video game of all time in 1995. I have played 44 games for this challenge and this score would rank it 39th also. The lack of music and the terrible sound design really make for a brutal experience, and couple that with the repetitive nature of the gameplay and you really feel like you're in for a nightmare. Play it on mute, and it's not quite that bad, but still hasn't aged well.
Duke Nukem is not a franchise I'm familiar with, apart from the endless negative things I heard about Duke Nukem Forever over the last decade. I was surprised to learn that the game has its roots right here, all the way back in July 1991 on the MS-DOS. The series would go on to have three more releases over the following 20 years, including two 3D games, whereas this one is a 2D platformer/action shooter.
I've played this game for 2 hours in total and did not beat it. My main issue, which I will, among other things, touched on below, was the headache-inducing (literally unfortunately) sounds. But here are my overall thoughts.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 5/10
This game has a lengthy explanation on what's going on before you start, plus dialogue that happens between Duke and the game's antagonist, Dr. Proton, which I always appreciate for this time period. Dr. Proton is a scientist who has turned evil and wants to take over Earth (a popular backstory for video game antagonists at the time I must say). You are Duke Nukem (called Duke Nukum in game because an animated series apparently had a character with the same name, so the devs wanted to avoid a lawsuit), and have to stop Dr. Proton. The intro says the following: "Armed only with his pistol and his can-do attitude, duke is hte one person who might stand a chance of success." Really? A squad of hundreds equipped with that same pistol (or more?) couldn't stand a better chance? Duke then drops a brutal one-liner: "I'll be done with you and still have time to watch Oprah." I appreciate the silliness and am shocked at how long Oprah has managed to stay relevant, despite being one of the fakest and obnoxious people I have ever seen on television. It makes me wonder whether I should like Duke now. I digress.
GAMEPLAY | 9/20
There is nothing wrong with the gameplay in Duke Nukem other than the fact that it is very repetitive and limited in the amount of things you are able to do.
You control your character with the left and right arrow keys, you use the UP arrow key as the "action" key, like taking elevators upwards or teleporting, you use CTRL to jump and ALT to shoot your pistol.
Your goal is to reach the EXIT of an area, which can be pretty much anywhere in a given level. The game uses the space it has fully both vertically and horizontally. This means you can fall down the entire map in some levels, you have lots of space to cover from left to right and a lot of the levels are designed in a kind of labyrinth sort of fashion, as you have no pointers on where to go and some areas can be kind of similar looking. Your goal usually is to find a key to unlock access to other areas and/or the exit itself.
While you are on the lookout for the key, you have to fight off robot enemies and helicopters, you have to break crates which can either have healing items, miscellaneous items that give you points for your total score and dynamite, which explodes, so you have to watch out. There are also cameras that "watch your every move", and if you destroy every camera in a given map, you get bonus points. There is some light platforming here as well to top it off.
The game this reminds me of the most in terms of design is actually Bugs Bunny's Birthday Blowout. In that game, you also work your way through relatively large open areas with exits that can seemingly be everywhere, and on your way there, you fight enemies and collect stuff.
Unlike that game, Duke Nukem doesn't suffer from 3 FPS and basically 0 difficulty level, but I can't say I liked the level design of either game.
Duke Nukem doesn't really have the variety to keep you engaged for the 10+ hours it will take you to beat it on your first playthrough and for me, playing it at all was literally headache-inducing, which is a first for any video game I have ever played, mainly because there is no soundtrack here at all and all you here is those typical MS-DOS sound effects, which I never realized sounded so horrible until I played a game without any music.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 1/10
There is no voice acting, which is pretty typical and no big deal. But there also is no soundtrack, which is very odd. Literally no music at all. And then there is the sound design, which, if this didn't exist either, I would be inclined to at least give one point, but the sounds are so horrible and headache-inducing that I'd give this minus points, if it were to be in my rating system.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 4/10
The game looks like your cut and dry MS-DOS game. The sprite for Duke is a man who just constantly is grinding his teeth, the game lacks detail in environment and animation, there is some use of too strong colors in the background which isn't too kind on the eye and the background itself is either a still image or just pitch black. There are definitely stronger games than this that released for the MS-DOS at the time, so this wasn't that impressive.
ATMOSPHERE | 5/10
Pretty nice to see each episode move to a different setting (earth, moon, future), but visually, this game is rather basic looking and apart from the handful of dialogue that you see throughout the game, and the 0 music and ambient sound, there isn't really anything to give the impression of anything atmospheric, apart from the lack of which on the moon I guess.
CONTENT | 4/10
Game is pretty long but has pretty repetitive gameplay and mission design. Rewards for doing some extra stuff, like destroying all cameras, pretty much always is just some bonus points, so there is a lack of incentive to go through each corner of the map as well (if you can find your way there).
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 4/10
A long game with labyrinth/maze like levels for no real reason. The gameplay variety here does not really justify the maps being so convoluted. The game has its fair share of fans still, just like any game from the past pretty much, but I doubt any new players will find a lot of enjoyment out of finding their way to the target, especially since the maps don't seem to be designed all too well.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 3/10
This is a platformer that doesn't really do anything differently. Perhaps it was an above average platformer on the PC, but there several other platformers who have done just about everything better than Duke Nukem does here.
REPLAYABILITY | 1/5
No real replayability after you're done, unless you want to get those bonus points and increase your score.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
The game worked well at all times.
OVERALL | 39/100
This game is celebrated for being one of the best platformers for the MS-DOS at the time. Flux magazine ranked it the 39th best video game of all time in 1995. I have played 44 games for this challenge and this score would rank it 39th also. The lack of music and the terrible sound design really make for a brutal experience, and couple that with the repetitive nature of the gameplay and you really feel like you're in for a nightmare. Play it on mute, and it's not quite that bad, but still hasn't aged well.